It’s still hard to believe we’re not getting an E3 this year. One of my favorite things to do each year is to try and predict what each company was going to bring to the table at their various press conferences. Even though we may not be getting a show this year, I’m not going to abandon my usual practice of guessing what the future holds.

With that in mind, I’m kicking off my annual E3 2020 prediction posts a little earlier than normal because we still know that announcements are coming, just not when since no one is being held to June anymore.

This week, I’m taking a look at Nintendo, who remains my wild card company considering that we really don’t know their second half plans for 2020. The company, while experiencing record success with the Switch (especially during the pandemic),has largely kept quiet for what its releasing later this year.

Sure, we do know of a few games they’re working on like Breath of the Wild 2 and Metroid Prime 4, but potential release dates have never entered the conversation to this point.

So, let’s try to shed some light on what the company is thinking heading into the summer. Here are my Nintendo predictions for 2020.

It’s fair to say that I’ve been on board with Ghost of Tsushima from day one of its announcement. For me, two things really did it for me.

The first thing was that it is being done by Sucker Punch, a developer I’ve really come to love from the PS3 and beyond days. The other element was that fact that while Ghost is really unlike anything the studio has done before, the foundations of it are built on the actual historical event when the Mongols invaded Tsushima Island. I’m a sucker for games that let me play around inside of actual historical based events.

At this point, it seems my blind devotion has largely paid off as the recent trailers and announcements have all looked fantastic. However, it was last week’s State of Play presentation that simply sealed the deal.

Before we get into today’s topic, I want to give major kudos to Bungie and the work they’ve been doing over the past few weeks to be transparent and open about the current state of the game. Destiny 2 has a lot of issues at the moment and it’s great to know that not only is Bungie aware of it, they’re detailing ways that they plan to fix them.

Having been with the franchise since the Destiny 2 beta days, I’ve seen all of the ups and downs. Believe me, there’s been a lot. However, this current phase feels like the most open and communicative the studio has ever been, which is really nice to see.

All that said, many of the game’s current issues have been significantly highlighted in its current season. The lackluster Season of the Worthy has been an absolute grind for players and not in a good way. Here’s why.

For all intents and purposes, Microsoft has been on fire with how they’ve approached their next generation plans. The company somehow managed to keep the Xbox Series X reveal a surprise during December’s The Game Awards, confirming the name and look of the console. Earlier in 2020, they were the first to show off their console’s specs, letting numerous places like Digital Foundry get their hands on it as well.

I believe that much of this hype was also improved by Sony’s seemingly unwillingness to really talk about the PS5 as of yet. So far, we’ve seen the controller reveal and the original GDC talk, which I think missed the mark for most casual or mass market fans. Sure, the hardcore may have enjoyed parts of it, but ultimately, that was a presentation geared specifically towards developers and industry professionals and not for a rabid fanbase desperate for accessible next gen news.

Regardless, the next major step for Microsoft was games and the company was set to check that box off last week during a new event. The hype continued to grow leading up to the event where gameplay was promised. Naturally, fans were excited to finally see what the next gen would look like. As we now know, things went a little bit sideways, much to the surprise of Microsoft.

So far, 2020 has not been very kind to Naughty Dog and its upcoming AAA title, The Last of Us Part II. It’s stunning really.

Before we dive into the past couple of weeks, it’s worth mentioning that the game itself has had a very long and rough development history. Originally announced back in 2016, the game has suffered multiple delays, go dark for long stretches of time, and even saw longtime Naughty Dog developer Bruce Straley leave the company.

Things have not gotten better as Kotaku then pointed a spotlight at Naughty Dog’s crunch culture at the studio and how The Last of Us 2 is coming at a massive cost to employees welfare. A few weeks later, Sony announced the game was getting delayed indefinitely largely due to the current global pandemic and started automatically refunding digital pre-orders.

Naturally, the fanbase was left dazed and confused by the rapidly evolving events. Unfortunately, things were about to get much, much worse.

Before we dive into today’s topic I hope you’re all doing well and that you and yours are safe. This is a wild and unprecedented time we’re living in so I hope you’re all hanging in there. As we’ve been told, we’ll get through this together.

So, the question on most people’s minds is where I disappeared to. Let’s talk.